Former Embattled Ohio State University Football Player Named In Sports Tickets Scam

Former Ohio State quarterback, Art Schlichter whose gambling addiction squandered his NFL career in the early ‘80s is back in the headlines again.

This time authorities say the former college All American is being investigated in a million-dollar sports tickets scam, according to a report by The Columbus Dispatch.

According to allegations made to the paper by unnamed sources, Schlichter began soliciting people for money under the guise of an “investment opportunity” involving brokering and selling tickets for Ohio State footballgames and other prominent sporting events around 2009.

Schlichter then allegedly used the money he obtained to place sizable bets that two sources close to the investigation say exceeded six figures.

Schlichter, 50, was a standout for the Buckeyes in the late ’70s and early ‘80s and was taken as the 4th pick in the 1982 NFL draft. He was suspended from the league a year later for gambling and was out of the NFL altogether by 1985.

Schlichter also spent more than a decade incarcerated since his professional football career ended for fraud and forgery, according to The Dispatch.

After his most recent release in 2006, Schlichter founded a non-profit organization, Gambling Prevention Awareness, to educate others about the perils of compulsive gambling, including college and NFL players.